As construction-purpose interior finishing materials, there are generally known a stone-based spray-coating material obtained by mixing a natural stone aggregate and a synthetic resin emulsion, an organic spray-coating material such as an acryl resin, an epoxy resin or the like, and an inorganic spray-coating material composed of rock wool, glass wool or the like. Such spray-coating materials are, however, insufficient in deriving a beautiful color required in a finishing material and demonstrating a compact shape and an interior decoration effect. The spray-coating materials are harmful to human bodies and cannot be regenerated. When incinerated or buried, the spray-coating materials may become a cause of environmental pollution. For these reasons, it is the recent tendency to avoid using the spray-coating materials mentioned above and to replace them with a nature-friendly product.
Along with the recent change in the housing culture and the living environment, there is an increasing demand for improved pleasantness of an indoor environment. A need exists to develop a convergence technology that assists in saving energy and keeping an indoor environment pleasant. Examples of such a technology include a cooling and heating technology and a thermal insulation technology.
In the hot-air heating and the hot-water radiation heating employed in most houses, the heat radiation from an indoor resident is reduced by increasing the surface temperature of an interior decoration material. In order to assure pleasant radiation heating, it is necessary to uniformly supply heat into a room so that the difference in temperature between the interior decoration material and the indoor air can be kept small. This may possibly lead to an overheating problem and a heat loss caused by ventilation or door opening and closing.
In case of cooling, failure to evenly control an indoor temperature results in an increased sense of unpleasantness. If a cooling device is heavily operated to avoid such a situation, it becomes difficult to save energy.
Examples of the thermal insulation material used in a building include expanded polystyrene foam, urethane foam and glass wool, the use of which has assisted in increasing the sense of pleasantness, reducing dew condensation and eventually improving the living environment. Since these thermal insulation materials serve merely to cut off heat transfer, there has existed a demand for a functional building material that can enjoy increased heat transfer efficiency.
As a solution to these technical problems, Korean Patent No. 0430839 discloses a sound-absorbing heat-insulating short-fiber composition comprising: 100 parts by weight of circular spheroid fibers with a diameter of 1 to 5 mm obtained by processing short waste fibers of 0.1 to 0.3 mm in length wasted in a fiber textile production process; 10 to 60 parts by weight of an inorganic flame-retardant; 10 to 70 parts by weight of an inorganic binding and curing agent; 10 to 40 parts by weight of an organic binder; 0.2 to 20 parts by weight of an inorganic pigment as a coloring agent; 0.5 to 3 parts by weight of an antimicrobial and antifungal agent; and 100 to 300 parts by weight of viscosity-controlling water based on the total weight of the above-noted components.
The sound-absorbing heat-insulating short-fiber composition cited above contains some nature-friendly additives and enjoys a sound-absorbing and heat-insulating effect basically required in a building material. Due to the absence of functional additives, however, the short-fiber composition fails to provide a satisfactory cooling or heating effect when it is used as a building material in the wall, ceiling or floor. Although some of the additives contained in the short-fiber composition are environmentally friendly, most of them are synthetic materials harmful to human bodies. Thus, it is still unsatisfactory to use the short-fiber composition as a building material for creating a pleasant living environment.
For the reasons stated above, there has existed a great demand to develop a cotton spray composition added with functional and environmentally-friendly substances capable of maximizing a cooling and heating effect and creating a pleasant indoor environment.